Campaigning Women

I'm exhausted today, so while I've been working on a longer post, I just don't think it's going to happen tonight. Instead, I thought I'd post a couple things I've been meaning to share since late August, when I attended a few events at the Democratic National Convention with my friend Few.



The first is a link to the website of the Women's Campaign Forum's She Should Run project. WCF is an organization dedicated to encouraging and supporting pro-choice women who want to run for office, be it on the local, regional, state or national level:

We are delighted that a record number of women are serving in federal and state government in 2008, but there is still a long way to go. With 16 women in the U.S. Senate, 71 women in the U.S. House, eight women governors and 1,746 women serving in state legislatures, we have only scratched the surface. Also despite the tremendous class of women who ran in 2006 and 2007, the overall numbers of women running for office are still alarmingly low. But this is a story about more than numbers – example after example shows us that women (or even just one woman) make a huge difference.

With the She Should Run campaign, Women’s Campaign Forum will find and provide the critical ask to women who will make that difference. And by encouraging women at the beginning of their political careers, we will build a pipeline of pro-choice women to lead our country for years to come.

If you know a woman who should run for public office or if you've ever considered politics yourself, check out She Should Run. They even have a Step-by-Step Guide with candidate resources.

Secondly, check out this trailer for Director Mary Lambert's film 14 Women, co-produced by Sharon Oreck and Nicole Boxer (Senator Barbara Boxer's daughter). 14 Women is a documentary about women in the U.S. Senate (since filming, the number's risen to 16). It came out in 2007, but hasn't yet had a wide release: